


Happy Birthday, Uncle Steve (and America)

by Quaxo



Series: Seven Years Too Late [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-02
Updated: 2013-05-02
Packaged: 2017-12-10 05:54:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/782573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quaxo/pseuds/Quaxo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Are you awake, Uncle Steve," Tony stage whispers.</p><p>Set before 'Too Late'.  Pure fluffy delightfulness with a little tinge of angst, but 99.7% fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happy Birthday, Uncle Steve (and America)

The sound of someone else's breathing wakes him up and old habits have him slowly reaching for his shield as he cracks his eyes open, searching for the source of the noise.

"Are you awake, Uncle Steve," Tony stage whispers, and Steve's body goes lax as he fights a sigh. A glance at the clock as he turns on the table lamp tells him it's 4:30 in the morning -- close to when he would've been getting up anyway. 

"Tony, you should be in bed," He grumbles, sitting up. He shouldn't be surprised -- whoever had set the kid's internal clock had screwed up it seemed, sometimes it felt the boy hardly slept -- and he didn't seem to realize that just because he woke up at four in the morning it didn't mean that everyone else would be too. 

"M'sorry," Tony mumbles, cheeks red as he chews his bottom lip.

"I was getting up anyway," He lies, hiding a yawn. "So where's the fire?"

Tony stares at him blankly and Steve rolls his eyes.

"What'd you need to tell me at 4:30 in the morning?"

"Oh... uhmm..." Tony rocks back on his heels, toes curling. "I just wanted to... uhm... Happy birthday."

Steve blinks a bit, and it takes him a moment to realize that yes, it is in fact his birthday. Since his parents died and the war his birthday had always been sort of a nonevent. There'd always been something more important.

"Thanks, Tony," He smiles and ruffles the kid's hair and Tony giggles. "You'd better get back to bed otherwise you'll be too tired for the fireworks tonight."

"There's going to be fireworks?"

"Yes, and a parade."

"All for your birthday?"

He laughs at Tony's wide-eyed awe, causing the boy to pout. "No, it's not just my birthday, it's America's birthday too. Haven't you ever been to a Fourth of July parade before?" 

His stomach drops when Tony shakes his head -- perhaps Tony was just too young to remember whether he had gone or not. Except he hardly ever saw Howard, as busy with his company as he was, and he wasn't sure where Maria went during the day or if she ever left her room at all. Sometimes at dinner he'd noticed she was red-eyed and wan...

"Well, then you'd better be sure to get back to bed, you won't want to miss anything."

Tony opens his mouth to protest, but apparently thinks better of it nodding and practically running out of the room.

He's just about about to turn out the light and try to catch a few more minutes of sleep when he hears small feet thundering back down the hallway.

"I thought you were going to bed, Tony?"

"I know -- I will -- just... here" Tony thrusts forward a long, awkward package towards him.

He carefully peels away the layers funny pages wrapped around the odd package (while Tony dances eagerly from foot to foot) to reveal pieces of Erector set that have been stacked and bolted together. It's some sort of tripod, with big hooks on two of the legs.

"It's for your shield," Tony chirps, looking at him anxiously. "So you can set it down without worrying about it falling or rolling away..."

"Thank you, Tony," He says opening the tripod and setting it on the floor, placing the shield in the brackets that Tony has carefully padded with foam. "That was very thoughtful of you."

"Okay, m'gonna go to bed now," Tony says around a wide yawn. "Happy birthday, Uncle Steve."

"Night, Tony."


End file.
